Obama tries to turn back Republican tide

President Barack Obama threw himself back into the congressional election campaign today in a political blitz against what appears to be an inevitable Republican landslide.

Mr Obama has travelled the country as the campaign nears its November 2 Election Day climax that is widely expected to leave him facing opposition control in the House of Representatives and a diminished Democrat majority in the Senate.

Polling shows the president and fellow Democrats in a trough of disfavour with the majority of American voters who are frustrated and angry over the administration’s failure to resurrect the US economy and bring down near-10% unemployment after the country’s worst fiscal nose dive in decades.

Mr Obama rested yesterday after an arduous swing through the West and Midwest, but the political battles continued on the television news programmes.

Republican Party chief Michael Steele predicted a wave of anti-Democratic voting on Election Day.

Not surprisingly, Democratic counterpart Tim Kaine said a strong get-out-the-vote effort would hold back losses and help prevent a Republican sweep.

With little over a week before the vote, Mr Steele predicted “an unprecedented wave on Election Day that is going to surprise a lot of people”.

Mr Kaine said Democrats would retain power in both chambers. He argued that early voting figures from some states and voter turnout at rallies for Democratic candidates were evidence that his party would avoid the disaster analysts are predicting.

A new poll, however, showed he is fighting an increasingly difficult reality for Democrats.

The Associated Press-GfK Poll showed that one in three people has yet to make a choice. Yet 45% of those voters tentatively prefer their district’s Republican House candidate while 38% pick the Democratic contender – the same 7% point margin Republicans hold with people who have already decided.

Compared with voters who have decided on a candidate, those open to change think less of congressional Democrats, the new survey showed, and are more inclined to oust their incumbent representative and are more pessimistic about the economy, this year’s bellwether issue.

By some estimates, at least 75 of all 435 House seats on the ballot this year may change hands, and most of those are held by Democrats. An additional two dozen other races for Democratic-controlled seats have tightened in recent weeks.

In the Senate, Democrats are seen as having a better chance of holding their majority even though 37 of 100 seats are up for election. Democrats currently have 57 seats, plus the backing of two independents. They are expected to lose some seats to Republicans, but it is unlikely the Republicans will pick up the 10 seats needed for a majority.

Mr Steele said Republicans hope for a better relationship between Mr Obama and a Republican-controlled Congress than they have seen with Democrats in the majority in the House and the Senate.

While Mr Obama is not on the ballot this year – a fact that is compounding the so-called enthusiasm gap that is expected to keep many Democrats from going to the polls – the president has revived his campaign persona as a dynamic and inspiring political advocate for his party’s candidates.

“The other side is betting on amnesia,” Mr Obama has said, reminding voters that the economic malaise confronting the country issued from the policies of his Republican predecessor, George Bush. The recession that crushed the economy began in the last year of Mr Bush’s presidency, who was still in office when a related financial crisis almost sent the system into a meltdown.